An Introduction to Opera

The lasting appeal of opera as a lavishly hybrid genre from the 1600s to the present. How and why does opera set its stories to music? What is operatic singing? Who is the audience? How do words, music, voices, movement, and staging collaborate in different operatic eras and cultures? Principal works by Monteverdi, Handel, Mozart, Verdi, Wagner, Strauss, Britten, and Adams. Class studies and attends two works performed by the San Francisco Opera.